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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)

I'm Not Scared

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Ali: Fear Eats the Soul on DVD

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is perhaps Rainer Werner Fassbinder's best-known classic. Like Far From Heaven, it's a loose remake of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows. In it, a lonely, older German cleaning woman, Emmi (Brigitte Mira) escapes the rain one night by entering a bar frequented by Moroccan workers. One, Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) dances with her and they begin talking. A tender, loving relationship grows and Ali eventually moves in with and becomes her lover. But of course, polite German society won't stand for it and everyone around them attempts to make their lives a living hell. Fassbinder made this one on the cheap between bigger projects and scored with a beautifully observed, and even oddly gentle tale.

DVD Details: The Criterion Collection presents Ali: Fear Eats the Soul in a magnificent, two-disc special edition. It lacks a commentary track, but contains an introduction by Todd Haynes, interviews, and film clips.

Starring: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Irm Hermann, Barbara Valentin, Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Written by: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Directed by: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
MPAA Rating: NR
Language: German with English subtitles
Running Time: 93 minutes
Date: August 29, 2003